Brazilian payments company EBANX announced plans to expand its operations and payments solutions outside Latin America for the first time to Africa, with a focus on South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria.

The three countries are said to account for 32 percent of Africa’s population, 51 percent of its GDP, and 73 percent of the startup accelerators active in the continent today.

Founded in 2012, EBANX currently operates in 15 Latin American countries. It also serves as workflow management platform Pipefy’s payments partner in the African region.

EBANX previously announced that it secured US$400 million in funding from Advent International and an additional commitment of US$30 million for the company’s planned IPO in the United States.

“This is the moment for Africa, and it’s quite reminiscent of the Latin American landscape back in 2012 when EBANX first began its journey by providing global merchants access to sell more goods and digital services via the internet to Latin Americans through local payment methods,”

said João Del Valle, CEO and Co-Founder of EBANX.

“Expanding our solutions to African countries speaks directly to EBANX’s mission of creating access, and having Pipefy as a merchant makes this moment even more special to us, expanding solutions and services throughout regions full of opportunities,”

said Paula Bellizia, President of Global Payments at EBANX.